"A strong commitment to save their schools"

From The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas

Greenland Schools Continue To Work Toward Fiscal Stability
New sales tax revenue will help restore long-term year-end balance
Last updated Wednesday, March 11, 2009 7:22 PM CDT in News
By Rose Ann Pearce
THE MORNING NEWS

GREENLAND -- The sales tax revenue earmarked for the Greenland School District will help stabilize the district finances beyond 2010 but probably won't get the school district off the state's fiscal distress list any sooner.

Julie Johnson Thompson, public information director for the Arkansas Department of Education, said voter support of the sales tax issue will have a positive impact when the state education department staff and the State Board of Education receive another quarterly report from Greenland in April.

Greenland Superintendent Roland Smith said it was doubtful the state would remove the district from fiscal distress earlier than the two-year timeframe allowed by state law. The state removed the Greenland School Board and took control of the district in June 2008. Once in fiscal distress, a school district is expected to get its finances in order in two years.

Smith has consistently said he believes Greenland can do that.

While voters wrapped up voting Tuesday, Smith met with about 60 patrons at Greenland High School, telling them he continues to believe the district will end the current fiscal year on June 30 with a balance of $150,000 and projected that could climb to about $400,000 by the end of the next fiscal year on June 30, 2010.

The goal for the district is to get the ending balance back to $800,000, the same level as 10 years ago before the district began sliding financially. The state education department generally recommends a school district have an ending balance between 7 percent and 10 percent of its budget.

"We have no intention to spend the sales tax. It will be put in reserve to build it back," Smith said, noting the sales tax proposal has not been a part of the district's financial planning.

The district is expected to receive about $100,000 a year for two years from the sales tax approved Tuesday. By a margin of 134 to 28, voters extended by two years a sales tax, set to expire in June. The tax was originally used for sewer improvement.

Smith noted voters in the city and the school district have, in the last nine months, approved a sales tax, a millage increase and a bond refinancing for building repairs and new buses.

"That indicates a strong commitment to save their schools," he said.